Star Fox: The Beginning
by Section91
Summary: The evil Andross has been exiled to the barren and deserted planet Venom. Five years has passed since his exile and strange activity is occurring on Venom and General Pepper has ordered the Star Fox team to investigate it.
1. Prologue

**Prologue****  
><strong>_Present Day Corneria_

Today was the day of the invasion. It was an invasion unseen in the entire history of the planet Corneria and that of the Lylat system. The Evil Andross, a mad and marauding scientist, had declared war and invaded the entire Lylat system. Andross had achieved the impossible; he assembled a massive army of nothing but trained mercenaries and criminals that were hell-bent on taking over the Lylat system. There was no hope of stopping the attacks and winning this galactic onslaught.

It was evident to General Pepper what had occurred; there was a massive invasion of the planet Corneria and as Commander in chief of the Cornerian Defense force, it was his duty to take whatever measures necessary to facilitate the situation at hand. The General needed to make his way to the command room, but it was difficult for him, explosions could be heard throughout the base and some of those explosions were powerful enough to create miniature earthquakes. The General, even in the advent of danger, needed to remain calm, assess the situation, and determine the best course of action to achieve victory.

As soon as the General reached the command center, he immediately ordered a SITREP. There were multiple soldiers and officers within the room. It was their duty to remain up-to-date with whatever information the General needed. Each individual soldier was assigned his own communications line and the officers were assigned to watch over the live action 3-D layout of the presiding battle on Corneria. An Officer said, "General, as you may already know, Corneria has been invaded by Venomian forces, they are attempting to overtake the Capital city and, from what we are able to see here, they outnumber us three to one, sir."

General Pepper needed to think up a battle plan immediately, but this was not going to be an easy task. To be able to come up with a plan while dealing with a crisis on the fly proved to be impossible to him. The General began to think of a possible solution to the crisis, but his train of thought was interrupted by a soldier. The Soldier yelled, "General, Sector Y is being overwhelmed and is requesting reinforcements, sir!" This came as not only as surprise to Pepper, but it made him realize that this was even worse than what was originally thought. The Sector Y forces had not only failed to prevent an attack on Corneria but they were also requesting reinforcements! He knew that if the Sector Y forces needed reinforcement, then the invasion force was far stronger and greater in number than imagined. The General couldn't let the issue of Sector Y affect his judgments and immediately said, "We can't afford to give any reinforcements to them. Tell the Sector Y forces they will need to resolve the situation themselves!"

General Pepper needed to find a way contain the invasion forces and save Corneria, but this was proving itself impossible. Pepper never had to face a situation so dire, how was he supposed to come up with a solution? Pepper began to get distracted with his thoughts before another soldier had chimed in. The soldier said, "General! Communications with Planet Fichina have gone off-line, sir!" This was not only bad, but this was getting out of hand. Planet Fichina contained a vital Scientific and Military installation, code named "Fortuna". Why would they attack the base there? To steal all scientific and classified information that the base had contained! To know that all communications with Fichina are lost meant that the enemy had overtaken the base "Fortuna".

Pepper could feel himself tensing up, his heart rate increase along with his breathing too. Pepper needed to calm himself and began taking deep and slow breaths. If he was to "save" Corneria, he needed to remain calm and act like the General he worked so hard to become. It was at this point the last solder in the room yelled, "General Pepper! Planet Katina is under attack! From what they have said, it appears the Cornerian forces there are able to hold their own and are doing their best to repel the invading forces, sir!" While not something General Pepper wanted to hear, it was the best news the General Pepper had heard all day. While he had wished the planet of Katina hadn't been invaded, he was glad that the Cornerian Pilots there were at least able to contain invasion force. But the General knew that the enemy forces would eventually capture Katina.

The General was now facing the worst situation imaginable and all hope at this point was now lost. Any hope of reinforcements from neighboring Galaxies was completely futile; the allied galaxies would not be able to respond in time. It was at this point that the General knew what he must do.

He issued those in the command room to order each of the individual field commanders to keep fighting and to never surrender. It did not matter what those Commanders faced, they had to fight on. As soon as the General issued his command, he immediately left the room and made his way to his personal quarters. An officer had called to him, but Pepper ignored it. He wasn't going to let anything stop him from doing the one thing that may save Corneria and the Lylat system. But this trek he was making was proving difficult for him since the fighting outside continued to intensify and the mini-quakes became more frequent. The General, as he continued his trek, could see the fear intensify in those around him. He could tell just by looking at each soldier and officer that they were ready to surrender, ready to quit and lay down their weapons in the vain hope that they're lives may be spared. It was incredibly disheartening for Pepper but he could not let them know the fear he too was facing. He had to appear strong and brave, even in the face of danger. General Pepper, while not the wisest of hound dogs, was not willing to accept surrender. He would rather die than have to surrender to his foe.

As soon as he had reached his personal officer's quarters, Pepper wasted no time in starting his personal communications computer. While it began its loading process, General Pepper prayed that the message he would have to send would reach its intended receiver and be answered in time. If not, it was something he did not want to think about.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1****  
><strong>_10 years before present day Corneria_

Andross was accustomed to flying in a military transport vessel and having to deal with the cramped space they were known for. The tedious task of always going to and from the military laboratories was a necessary part of the tedium that required him to work on the secret military projects he headed as Corneria's Chief Scientist. Andross' most recent project he was required to helm was "Project Reality". He would never see the end of the project.

Today was very different; Andross was now and forever would be labeled as a genocidal war monger. He had attempted to wipe-out nearly all of people of Corneria and to have them submit themselves to him. Although his attempt ended in failure, he was successful in the death of millions of innocent people.

No chances for failure in his arrest were taken; Andross was to be placed under arrest and muzzled. As expected, Force was required in his arrest and he was to immediately be sent to General Pepper.

Just in front of Andross sat the one and only Dog soldier that he knew of. The soldier kept a sharp eye on Andross he wasn't going to allow the once great scientific genius attempt to get the better of him. He was more than ready to pull the trigger if need be. But the order was given that Andross was to be arrested and taken directly to General Pepper.

Andross tried to keep his focus away from the soldier and tried to keep himself busy with his thoughts. He wasn't quite sure of where the vessel was taking him, except that he was going to see General Pepper, but nothing more. It would be an hour before an announcement over the ship's speakers came through. Through the loud speaker the pilot announced, "We've reached the F.O.B. Prepare for landing." This was it… he was about to face the General.  
>As soon as the ship had touched down, the soldier got up and said, "Get up scum! Don't you dare attempt anything funny, or else I will personally blow off your head. Now get moving!" The soldier had his rifle trained on Andross, but the attempt at intimidation hadn't fazed Andross, but even Andross knew better than to continue sitting and anger the soldier.<p>

The ship's bay doors had opened and the site Andross was greeted with was something he wasn't really expecting. He was surrounded by the site of more than a thousand on lookers. It was then it dawned on Andross and he immediately realized where he was, he was inside the largest base on Corneria. It was Corneria's most renowned of them all, he wasn't expecting this base to still be operating, even after his nearly successful attempt to practically destroy half of Corneria.

The base itself had four upper levels and several lower levels. How many lower levels the base had were a closely guarded secret and very few actually knew. Only those who were stationed to the base knew of the lower levels and very few were ever allowed in them. Andross had figured he would be sent to General Pepper's location, which was most likely to be the command room, which was in the lowest level of the base, or his personal quarters, which was one level above the command room.  
>A husky officer with two more soldiers in tow approached the Dog soldier guarding Andross. The soldier escorting Andross followed the usual military protocol and initiated his salute and waited for his superior officers response, which the officer then gave immediately afterwards. The Officer asked, "He didn't give you any problems on the ride here?"<br>"No sir."

"How sad… I was hoping you would have given him a good wallop. Did you bring anything that may be of some importance to the General?" "Yes sir. One of the other soldiers found this in his labs."

The Dog soldier then revealed what was once Andross' Media player. The Officer grabbed the device and was curious to find out what was on it, but he didn't and figured that General Pepper would want to look at what was on there first. He then thanked the soldier and relieved him of his duty and had motioned to the other soldiers to grab a hold of Andross, he didn't need him to attempt an escape, no matter how futile it would have been.

The officer than brought himself closer to Andross and said, "So, the once great scientific genius, Andross, finally went mad. I knew something was wrong with you and I was proven right."  
>"Please Captain Husky, I reall-"<br>"Major Husky."  
>"Really now? When did this happen?"<br>"Just today. My superior happened to be one of your victims. So they decided to promote me since they considered me to be his perfect replacement."

Andross laughed once he learned that Major Husky's superior happened to fall prey to his failed effort. Major Husky had taken offense to Andross' clear lack of respect for life. Major Husky had much respect for his former superior, as did many other military officials who knew of him. He decided then that Andross needed to be taught a lesson on respect, a very painful one.

Andross was expecting the Major to take him to Pepper right away but the he didn't. Major Husky cracked his knuckles and said, "Men, there is going to be a slight _delay_ in our Prisoner's delivery." It then became abundantly clear to Andross what Major Husky was going to do to him. He attempted to take a step back but was stopped by the soldiers. He couldn't break away from their grips, he knew this but it didn't stop him from trying. It didn't matter how hard Andross tried, those two soldiers were not going to let go of him.  
>Major Husky grabbed him by the collar and swung his hardest left hook across Andross' face. The sheer force of that one punch was nearly enough for Andross to black out, he could feel himself immediately become limp but as soon as he began to falter, the Soldiers brought him right back up and forced him to stand. Major Husky angrily said, "That was for all those Major Janson!" He then grabbed Andross by the throat and began to relentlessly choke him. It was incredibly agonizing to Andross. It didn't matter how hard he attempted free himself from Major Husky's grip, he would only tighten his hold even more and would drive his thumbs deeper and harder into Andross' gullet and any attempt for a bit of air was futile. Major Husky effectively cut off any Andross could get. Andross began to black out; he did everything he could to wrench himself free, but it was hopeless, the soldiers were too strong, the major was too strong, and he wasn't strong enough.<br>Major Husky then loosened his grip on Andross' throat but then immediately shoved his knee into Andross' gut. Andross felt what little breath of air get forcibly shot out of him. He began to fall limp and it was this time the soldiers had let him fall to the floor. Andross grabbed his throat positioned his body into the fetal position and could only hope this nightmare would end. The officer than angrily said, "That was for our families!" He wanted to grab his stomach and rub his throat but the most he could do was just try and bring his knees closer to him. The Officer began to relentlessly kick Andross multiple times and with each kick the officer shouted a word. Andross couldn't pay any attention to what Husky said, all he remembered was something along the lines of "The innocent" and "lost lives". As soon as the officer was done violently kicking Andross, he then recomposed himself.  
>The Major Husky than turned to the soldiers and said, "Alright, Get the dirty ape back on his feet and take him General Pepper. We've made him wait long enough." The soldiers gave their trained reply and began their effort to force Andross to get back on his feet and make the arduously painful and uncomfortable walk to General Pepper.<br>It wasn't long before they all had finally reached Pepper's location. Major Husky walked into the command room first and told Pepper of the arrested Andross. Pepper was heard saying, "Excellent. Bring him in." The soldiers complied with his order and took Andross inside. Andross just chose to stand where the soldiers forced him to. Andross had figured he would stand before General Pepper; instead one of the soldiers had forced him to get on his knees. Someone like him, they figured, no longer had the right to stand before Corneria's highest ranked officer.  
>General Pepper, even in this time of crisis, was wearing his full formal attire. His wardrobe consisted of a Crimson officer cap, his Crimson Dress coat, his matching Crimson Dress pants, and his standard military boots. General Pepper always did maintain a high standard appearance and protocol.<br>General Pepper immediately noticed that Andross the beaten and bruised marks his face. He was curious to find out why he looked injured and had asked, "Major, why does the prisoner have so many bruises?" The Major answered, "He tried to give us some problems earlier. He needed to be put in place, sir." General Pepper had no reason not to believe what the Major said. If anything, Andross deserved every hit he received. But Pepper had more pressing matters on hand and asked, "I had received word earlier that something important was found from his home. Would you mind showing me what it is?" Major Husky replied, "Yes there was General." He then handed Pepper the media player.  
>Pepper asked, "Do you know what's on here?"<br>Husky answered, "No sir. I figured you would want to be the first to find out what's on the device first."  
>"I see."<p>

General Pepper then got closer to Andross and asked him, "What is on this?" Andross didn't respond. General Pepper wasn't sure if Andross didn't answer because he knew there was something truly bad on there he wanted to keep to himself or if he was just trying to annoy him by not answering, either way Pepper needed to know. He turned on the device and noticed that there was only one video and a multitude of notes. Pepper knew that it would take him a long period of time to look through all the notes and it would be near impossible just to understand what was on them and instead opted for the video. What played was something he had not expected at all.  
>Andross lowered his head in shame when General Pepper played the video and began to reminisce on the whole event. What had occurred that day was something he felt great guilt over. On that day, Andross had hired a hit-man and had ordered him to assassinate James McCloud via a Car bomb and to record the event. The plan was simple and there would be no trace of any evidence except the video which Andross wanted to keep for himself.<p>

The plan ended up being a complete disaster. Everything had transpired like it was supposed to except James did not enter the car like he was supposed to but instead it was Vixy who went in! The hit-man made no attempt to stop her chose to let her start the car and make it explode, he wasn't about to expose himself or the planned effort. Andross was in love with Vixy and wanted her to be his wife and he held an incredible hatred towards James for marrying her. Andross had chided the Hit-man for not doing anything and began to threaten him, but the Hit-man was not going to take any of his threats and had threatened to blackmail Andross with the video and had promised to make sure all the blame would be placed on Andross.  
>Andross chose to back off and made a deal with Hit-man to ensure that neither person would have to face punishment for the event. But that all had changed and Andross would now be forced to own up to the murder.<br>General Pepper was completely surprised by what he had witnessed. He now felt an even greater amount of animosity towards Andross. The sheer anger Pepper felt was almost enough to make him want to destroy the device and kill Andross himself. Pepper handed the device back to Captain Husky, he didn't want the built up anger to blind him of his duty and destroy the device. He took a deep breath and calmed himself as much as he could.  
>General Pepper knew that he would have to tell James of who was behind his wife's untimely demise and why he wouldn't be able to get his revenge on Andross. What Pepper had to do was far exceeded his good friend's traumatic experience.<p>

General Pepper wanted to render his judgment on Andross, but there was something on his mind. Ever since Andross arrived, Pepper's mind was bombarded with a nagging sensation. Pepper wondered if he was supposed to give Andross a fair trial. Why give Andross a fair trial? It was a completely absurd idea! Only a fool would give someone like Andross a fair trial. But the sensation wouldn't leave his mind. He didn't want to dare risk giving Andross a fair hearing, he didn't want him to get a life sentence or possibly get away with everything he did. Pepper decided then that there was one thing he was willing to do, it wasn't fair but it would, hopefully, get rid of that sensation.  
>General Pepper asked, "Why should I let you live?"<br>"Why? Why? Why do you ask such a stupid question? You waste my time and yours with such idiocy! We both know what I've done and we both know what you plan to do-"

Andross was cut-off mid-sentence by a back-handed slap by Pepper. Pepper, while patient, could only take so insulting before he would lose his temper. Pepper responded in an irritated tone, "You're such a stupid ape. I just granted you some mercy and yet you decided to insult me. I should have you water boarded!"  
>"And what do you expect to get out of me? A confession of what I did? Do you want me to beg for mercy? Hah! You would never get me to break. You're not even worth my time General."<p>

"Then I guess it's time we ended this charade."

General Pepper then glanced at a 3-D holographic image of what was considered the most inhospitable and toxic planet in all of the Lylat system, or better known as Venom. Pepper then asked, "Do you know what I have planned for you?"  
>"I assume you intend to execute me yourself with that pistol of yours."<br>General Pepper than looked at his right side of his hip, saw his holstered pistol and then gave a brief chuckle. He had seriously considered using his pistol, but he decided against it. He felt what Andross deserved warranted something far worse than a bullet to the head. He wanted Andross to truly pay for what he did to Corneria.  
>Pepper then focused his attention to Andross and said, "Andross, what you have done doesn't warrant you a pain free death." This was bit of a surprise for Andross. He had expected Pepper to end him. In fact, he had expected a lot of things. Andross knew that if his plan failed, he would or thought he would be executed immediately. He had planned that in the event he were to be executed, he kept in his secret lab a sample of his hair.<p>

In the lab was his robotic-pig assistant whose sole goal was to maintain the samples and then use them to regenerate Andross if he were to die. The Problem with this plan was that General Pepper didn't intend to have Andross executed. He had something far more interesting in mind.  
>"Andross, I'm not going to waste any more of my time with you."<br>Andross perked up a bit when he heard this. Pepper continued, "I'm exiling you. I no longer want you on my planet!"

Andross was somewhat confused at what he just heard. Did General Pepper plan to have him imprisoned on another planet? It made the most sense to Andross. Why else would Pepper order an exile? If that was the case, then Andross had nothing to fear. He would most likely be sent to the planet Papetoon be imprisoned there. Most, if not all, of Corneria's exiles were sent there. Andross liked the thought of that. He could make it work to his advantage.  
>General Pepper pointed to a holographic image on the table behind him and said, "To the planet VENOM is where you will spend your exile!" Andross was completely shocked what he just heard. Venom, that is where he would be sent? No, he couldn't let them take him there. He wouldn't let them take him there. They will have to take him by force!<p>

Andross tried to make a break for it, but it was all in vain. His effort was foiled before it even began. It was then that Pepper Pointed straight at Andross and said, "Colonel Husky, send him to Venom right away. I want him to spend his remaining days rotting on that barren planet."  
>"Yes sir. Come on men, we have orders to follow."<br>Andross yelled, "No! I won't let you do this to me!" It was then Andross began to futilely fight back, but it was to no avail. And they instead began to forcefully drag Andross to his punishment. As the soldiers began to drag him away, Andross made one last statement and said, "I'll kill you all! I swear it on my life I will kill you all! I don't care how long it takes, I will have my revenge!"  
>It was done. The Scientific Genius, Andross, would be forced to face his punishment. But General Pepper didn't feel at ease. For whatever reason, General Pepper could feel an ominous sensation in his gut. His gut feeling would have to wait; someone else had entered the room.<p>

Beltino had decided to enter the room shortly thereafter Andross was dragged away. Beltino was a short and stocky toad, but was also one of Corneria's most brilliant scientists. Beltino, in his mildly high pitched voice, croaked, "Erm, yes, might I have a word with you General?"  
>"Yes. Yes you may"<p>

"Excellent. Erm, General, are you alright?"  
>"No… No I'm not."<br>"Er, yes. Um… General Pepper, do you think we'll be able to recover from all that has happened?"  
>"Yes, yes I do."<br>"Erm, excellent. General, I had overheard what you had said to Andross… Do you think you made the right decision in exiling him?"  
>General Pepper didn't respond right away. He gave his decision a brief thought. Did he make the right decision? Did Andross deserve a trial? Did he? It was then he came to the conclusion that what he did was right. General Pepper then said, "Yes Beltino. I think I did make the right decision."<p> 


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2****  
><strong>_9 years before present day Corneria_

It was less than eighteen minutes past midnight that a unit composed of only five highly elite and covert special-ops had descended upon the most lucrative and sought after facility on Corneria. The facility was sought after as it was said to contain many of Andross' more maniacal and dangerous plans. But finding the facility was by no means an easy feat; the location of it was only briefly alluded to in many of Andross' notes and anything that may have contained more information used some of the most complex cryptography. The effort to translate what was said in the notes took more than 8 months to decipher, and the tools and resources needed to translate them were never readily available. Andross had used a multitude of resources that ranged from dead languages to references of old and often disproven scientific literature.

What was strange was how close its location was to the capitol city, it was located in a forest just north of the Capitol city, which was roughly 64 miles outside of its boundary. How Andross was able to construct and maintain the secrecy of the facility's location was a complete mystery. It led many to wonder whatever happened to those workers who were hired by Andross to construct his facility. Many had speculated that they were all murdered after its completion, others believed that he may have had constructed it himself. No matter the case, the facility had to be destroyed both inside and out.

The mission for the spec-ops troopers was to infiltrate the facility, eliminate any and all of its habitants, destroy any and all of Andross' works, perform any miscellaneous tasks if necessary, and then blow up the facility from the inside. This was to all be done in only 20 minutes, nothing more was acceptable. The unit of only 5 spec-ops knew that if they couldn't get out in less than 20 minutes, the facility would be bombed, even if they were still in it. Any longer and they would be presumed dead or turned rogue, in which case, the Cornerian Air Force would bomb the facility. The risk of all of the troops being dead or betraying Corneria was not something that was being taken lightly, which was why only 5 were allowed to undertake the mission, those whose allegiance would never be challenged and could get the job done.  
>The five troopers consisted of one hawk, one hare, one shepherd, one rat, and lastly one wolf. None of them knew each other; they only knew each other's rank and their respective species. They would never acknowledge each other by their names, only by their species. Wolf was the leader of the small pack of troopers, Shepherd was the second highest ranked, Hawk was in the middle of ranking, Hare was fourth, and Rat was the lowest ranked.<br>It was finally time to break into the facility. Wolf ordered all of them to put on their masks and to turn the safeties on their rifles off. Each of them positioned themselves by the door, ready to penetrate, except for Rat, who was readying the C4 to blow the metallic door to smithereens. Rat finished setting the C4 and set the timer for ten seconds, enough time for Rat to avoid getting in harm's way and to take his position in the back of the pack. The C4 went off as expected and completely destroyed the door. Hare was to the left of and the closest to the door and went in first. Hawk was to the right of the door and was the second one inside. Both of them immediately noted that there were no enemy units present. The others had rushed in shortly after the two had entered.  
>As soon as they all regained their bearings, it became very clear someone was still keeping the base in maintaining order. It was very strange to them all. The hard floor was kept clean; the lights were still on, and what little furniture was in there was kept free of any dust and debris. The furniture was nothing more than a glass table in front of a cushion. Every step they took made the annoying sound that a clean floor would make. It was pretty evident to them that someone was still inside the base. How many there were was to remain a mystery for now.<br>The small room they were in had three distinct paths they could take; two separate hallways on the left and right side of the room and an elevator at the other end of the room. Wolf figured the elevator would lead to the buildings power source and the hallways would lead them to the building's labs. Wolf said, "Rat, take the elevator. Hawk, Shepherd, take the left hallway. Hare, I want you to take the right hall with me." Each of them gave their affirmation and began to head to their destinations.  
>Rat was picked for the power room due to him being the most experienced with explosives having the most at hand. Rat was about to enter the elevator, but wolf stopped him at the last minute. Wolf said, "Rat, I expect us to lose radio contact with you. You're on your own if you see anything in there." Rat replied, "Hmph! don't worry about me. I can get out of any tough situation. Just you watch." "Right. Just be careful." "Don't you worry about me." It was then Rat stepped inside the elevator, closed the doors, and began his descent to the generator room.<br>Wolf was bit unnerved by Rat's cocky attitude, but he was right, he didn't have time to worry about him, he had less than fifteen minutes to get the job done before the base is bombed. Wolf then made his way through the right hallway and caught up to Hare. As soon as Wolf reached Hare, he noticed that Hare had been meticulously working on a keypad. Wolf asked, "What's the problem?" "I can't get the e.s.d. open. Have to crack the numpad to unlock it." The electronic sliding door, or e.s.d. for short, had a security numerical pad which was meant to keep any intruders from entering the room. Wolf commented, "Too bad we don't more C4 on us. Would've been nice to have this thing out of the way." Hare replied, "Wouldn't have done any good. The frame is too tough."  
>Hare continued to work on the numpad, or what was left of it. He had removed the frame and left the hardware intact. To crack the door's code he was utilizing his own piece of hand-held hardware. The tool was just a basic code cracker, it wasn't needed for the most complicated piece of hardware since all he needed to do was have a couple of wires hooked into the numpad's mainframe and let the tool do all the work. It didn't take long to crack the code and this was made known by the fact that the door had opened right once the tool gave off the sound for a successful crack.<br>Both Wolf and Hare readied themselves before heading into the room. Wolf asked, "You got your rifle ready?" Hare replied, "Yes sir. Ready when you are." "Alright… on my mark… GO!" In that short instant they had finally entered the mysterious room.

Rat was beginning to grow impatient with the elevator. Never did he think he would have to ride something so slowly. Rat could bear the unbearably slow descent, what really got on his nerves was the elevator music. Of all the things he hated, it was always the choice of elevator music, and this elevator was no different than the many other elevators he's ridden before. In many cases, he just took the stairs just to avoid that dreadful music.  
>Rat let out a low moan and then said, "Please… Please no more. Just take me to my destination and stop torturing me please!" Shortly after making his plea, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Rat felt an incredible amount of joy inside of him, but he begrudgingly kept it contained. He had a mission to keep to. He needed to reach the facilities generator, lace it with all of his explosives, and then regroup with the rest of the team. What made things better for Rat was that the Generator was right in front of him.<br>The Generator was larger than he expected. It contained a continually spinning center core, multiple energy diodes that would be "shot" with bursts of electricity, and appeared to be based on perpetual energy. If what Rat thought was true, this machine would create one heck of an explosion and could quite possibly cause the facility to partially collapse upon itself. Rat let off a huge grin, while the mask covered his whole face if anyone was right next to Rat, he would have known he was very happy. Rat said to himself, "I love my job. Better get all this stuff set up."  
>Eagle and Shepherd had reached their end of the hallway, which was blocked by an e.s.d. Eagle sarcastically whined, "Oh great, just what we need!" Eagle said this because the doorway itself also had a numpad and the tool they needed to crack it, neither had on them. Shepherd asked, "So, what do you think we should do? Should we head back to Wolf and Hare and ask them for the tool?" "No we just… try to crack it by hand." Eagle was known for being overly prideful and didn't like asking for help, he felt it was always something beneath him. Eagle then said, "Okay, we'll punch in a couple of random numbers and if they don't work, we'll just shoot the numpad!" Shepherd then remarked, "Not to make you sound stupid or anything, but if we shoot the numpad, the e.s.d. may very well lock us out for good." Eagle sarcastically asked, "Could you be any less frustrating to deal with?" Shepherd remarked, "Just trying to use some common sense is all."<br>Eagle didn't want to focus too much on the door, but the fact that he and Shepherd had no other means to open the door meant he would probably have to ask for help. He refused to do that! He asked, "Can we just use the explosives we got on us? I mean, we must have enough to blow at least three of these doors to kingdom come, right?" Shepherd then had to point out they didn't have enough and that the door was just too strong even with their explosives combined. Eagle then leaned on the door, rubbed his head to deal with his self-induced migraine.

Shepherd knew Eagle wouldn't allow him to ask for help, so he figured he might as well as give the numpad a try anyways. He thought to himself, "What would be the most likely code Andross would use?" He had no clue and inputted the first set of numbers that came to his head. The numpad gave a clear successful sound, however, Eagle wasn't prepared. He was still leaning on the door. As soon as the e.s.d. opened, Eagle had no time to catch himself and ended up falling to the floor.

Shepherd looked over at Eagle and gave out brief chuckle at the sight of a humiliated team-mate. Shepherd said, "You know, common sense dictates you shouldn't lean on those doors." Eagle scowled, "Shut up! Just shut up!" Shepherd couldn't help but mentally gloat at him. Eagle stood up, brushed himself off, and then asked wolf, "So, what did you put in?" "I just input _1-2-3-4-5_." Eagle felt angry that something so stupid and simple was used. He yelled, "That's the stupidest password I've heard in my life! That's the kind an idiot would have on his luggage!" "I think you should calm down. Besides, we have a mission to accomplish." Eagle calmed and readied himself. They both entered the room, what they would see would shock them beyond their imaginations.

The room they had entered was the biological laboratory. There were all kinds of strange tools, chemicals, plants, books, and creatures all over the multiple tables that filled the room. They both could guess that Andross had more than one experiment he was working on at a time. But, what truly shocked them beyond belief was what was at the center of the room. It was a giant, clear tube that contained two adult bodies. The bodies themselves were housed by an embryonic fluid and their nutrition supplied by their umbilical cords both of which led to a large yellow yolk.

Shepherd and Eagle could barely fathom that something like this existed; much less that Andross had something like this at all. Eagle regained his composure and said, "Listen, we can't let this… thing to live. Can you see anyway to kill them off?" Shepherd began to examine the technology holding together the _womb._ Shepherd replied, "Looks like they're almost ready to leave the _womb._ I see no direct way for us to kill them off, but I think we can drain it early. That should work." Eagle replied, "Sounds like a plan." Eagle then raised his rifle and began to beat at the _womb_. He focused on a single point. The _womb_ proved resilient and only minor surface cracks began to form.

Shepherd stopped Eagle, pointed out that there was easier way to drain the _womb_ and then began working on the machinery that housed the two Androsses. It was only in a few seconds the tube began to drain. A loud siren was set off, but nothing happened. Eagle said, "Hmph. Well then… I think it's time we readied this room to blow up." They then began to plant every c4 charge they had on them in the room. They made sure that what was in there was not going to be preserved once the c4 went off.

Wolf and Hare were huddled together in the computer room using a makeshift table as cover, ready to attack the enemy or enemies that were also present. It was shortly after they had entered the computer lab that the door behind them locked and the power was shut off. The sudden they were beginning to get scared. They couldn't tell how many hostiles were in the room.

Hare had a plan of attack, but didn't want to initiate it. He knew it would be too dangerous to pull off if he didn't know how many hostiles there were. He turned to Wolf and quietly asked, "How many can you detect are in here?" Wolf responded, "Not sure. You think you can wait a minute?" "Yeah, but I don't think the others will. Make it quick." Wolf began to take slow, deep breaths, closed his eyes, and propped up his ears. Wolf had entered a form of meditative state. It was designed to help him determine how many enemies there were and to give others an almost approximate location of where each hostile was.

Wolf's smelling and hearing senses had increased nearly tenfold. What he thought was odd was the enemy didn't have a very familiar smell. From what wolf could tell this hostile was covered in metal. The enemy kept moving back and forth, there was no interference in the sounds of his movement, and thus he was able to come to the conclusion that there could only be one. He thought it odd that he couldn't hear the sounds of breathing. Either way, he could now tell Hare everything he was able to learn.

Wolf came out of his meditative state and informed Hare that there was only one and that he likely covered in body armor. Hare didn't like hearing that his target was armored, meant more shots would be needed to take him down and the risk of the enemy retaliating were much higher compared to a foe who only carried some protection on him. Hare decided to go through with his plan.

Hare asked, "You got a flash on you?" Wolf then pulled out his only flash bang grenade. Wolf knew what Hare had planned and he knew of how dangerous it was. Hare wouldn't ask him if he had any Flash bangs on him if he couldn't handle the situation. Hare then grabbed his flash bang grenades, readied them, and then began to count down…

3…

2…

1…

Both in perfect unison threw their flash grenades over their make-shift bunker. The grenades went off and a bright light had shone throughout the room for less than a second. It was then that Hare had jumped over the bunker and towards the enemy. He was still in the air when he fired his rifle towards his target. Nearly every shot landed and took down the hostile in an instant.

Hare had landed, regained his composure, and trained his rifle on the hostile. He turned on his rifles flashlight; he kept it off to prevent the enemy from knowing his exact location. What he saw surprised him! He didn't shoot a living being, he shot a droid. Wolf came over to Hare and saw the droid. It was strange; the droid looked exactly like one of the pig species. Wolf then said, "I think it's time we got to work." Hare nodded in agreement.

The door that locked them had suddenly unlocked and opened. In came rushing in was both Eagle and Shepherd. Eagle said, "We heard gun fire. What happened?" Wolf responded, "We had a problem that needed to be taken care of. It's lying disabled right over there." Wolf pointed to the now defunct pig droid.

They had finished prepping the room to blow and made their way back to the center room. Wolf ordered Shepherd to get into to contact with Rat. It wasn't long before Rat came riding back the elevator and into the center room. Wolf happily said, "We've done our jobs boys. Time for us to get out of this pig sty." They were about to head out before a figure appeared out of the corner. It was one of the Andross clones that was in the _womb_ and it was armed. The clone weakly raised its pistol but the clone was shot dead before it could even raise the gun half way.

The team was confused, how could Andross be inside the base? He was supposed to be on Venom! Shepherd then said, "It's one of those clones me and Eagle found. I can't believe it was actually alive." Rat then responded, "I think it's time we beat it before another one of them freaky things shows up." It was right at the end of Rat's response that another Andross clone appeared. He was unarmed, bare, and weak.

The team then trained their rifles on the clone, but the clone showed no fear and continued to walk towards the group. The clone didn't get that far, he collapsed onto the floor from being so weak and his struggle to properly breathe. The team then moved over to the struggling clone. The clone in a strained tone said, "I… will… succeed… I… will… destroy… all… the Lylat system… Corneria… I will… destroy it…" The clone then took one last breath and made no more.

Rat responded, "Destroy the Corneria and the Lylat system? I thought Andross wanted to conquer it?" Eagle responded, "Doesn't matter. We gotta get outta this place or else we're just gonna end up getting bombed with it." Eagle was right, the bombers were most likely on their way there. Wolf ordered the team to make haste and get out of the facility.

Their pick-up chopper was just outside the base waiting for them. They all made their way onto the chopper. The pilot had waited a good while for them. He was about to leave, but the team had just climbed in. the pilot sarcastically said, "Gee I was hoping I could leave you guys behind! What took you so long?" None of them responded. The pilot then said in an irritated tone, "Fine! Jeez! Don't tell me, I didn't want to know anyways."

The helicopter began to take off and was off in the air in an instant. The loading ramp the team had previously used to climb onto the chopper was still open. Rat then held up his detonator, Wolf gave his nod of approval, and then Rat set the charge. There was a large explosion that lit up the forest for a brief moment. The site had astounded the team, but Rat knew why it was as large as it was. Right after the explosion many more and smaller explosions could be seen. They all knew the bombing run was being made to remove the last possible, if any, traces of Andross' research. They could head home knowing that their mission was a success and that there was nothing that they would have to worry about… or at least, they hoped there was "nothing" to worry about.


End file.
